NOSTALGIA: Nobody’s quite like Peterborough’s Nobby

Nobby with his golf kit at home at Oundle Road

If you put the term “famous Peterborough people’’ into an internet search among the results as well as the likes of pop star Aston Merrygold and poet John Clare you will find Nobby the Tramp.

Peterborough people took Nobby, whose real name is believed to be Michael Ross, to their hearts after he set up home in a bus shelter on Oundle Road.

Nobby at Oundle road bus stop ENGEMN00120101217153615

Residents regularly left food and clothing for him and, as his fame spread, the shelter was even given its own post code.

With his bushy beard, he was a regular sight in the city centre for many years, and was often pictured by ET photographers.

He was found a proper home and dropped out of sight but he was back on the front page of the PT a few weeks back as one of the ‘stars’ of Paramedic Paparazzo Chris Porsz’s Reunions book.

Nobby previously hit the headlines after somebody left him some golf clubs and he was spotted showing off a rather impressive swing.

Nobby at Oundle road bus stop ENGEMN00120101217153637

Cheekily he told the now defunct Herald & Post newspaper he had been invited to play in a professional tournament in Ireland. He hadn’t!

But Peterborough people continue to be fascinated by him to this day.

A play has been written about his life, he’s been the subject of portraits by painter s and there’s even a Facebook group dedicated to him.

Today’s pictures from the PT archives show him in his former home – the Oundle Road bus shelter – showing off his golfing technique and enjoying the music at the Willow Festival.

Nobby at Oundle Road bus stop ENGEMN00120101217153604

Picture supplied by Chris Porsz/Bav Media 07976 880732. (Geoff Robinson Photography)
Picture shows Nobby - Original pic 1980.
Scotsman Michael Ross, affectionately known as Nobby, lived in a bus shelter in Peterborough for 10 years in terrible conditions after his house burnt down. Nobby, who used to be a head teacher, was given some golf clubs by a passer-by and indulged in his passion by sneaking onto the local course. Local residents thought he had died when he went into sheltered housing around 10 years ago and gave up his bus shelter home.
An amateur photographer has amazingly tracked down people he snapped on the streets of his hometown 40 YEARS ago and painstakingly recreated more than 130 PICTURES in a remarkable new book.
Paramedic Chris Porsz spent hours walking around the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the late 1970s and 80s, taking candid shots - without his subjects knowing and without recording their names or phone numbers.
Three decades later, Chris, known as the "paramedic papara

Picture supplied by Chris Porsz/Bav Media 07976 880732. (Geoff Robinson Photography)
Picture shows Nobby - Reunion pic September 2015
Scotsman Michael Ross, affectionately known as Nobby, lived in a bus shelter in Peterborough for 10 years in terrible conditions after his house burnt down. Nobby, who used to be a head teacher, was given some golf clubs by a passer-by and indulged in his passion by sneaking onto the local course. Local residents thought he had died when he went into sheltered housing around 10 years ago and gave up his bus shelter home.
An amateur photographer has amazingly tracked down people he snapped on the streets of his hometown 40 YEARS ago and painstakingly recreated more than 130 PICTURES in a remarkable new book.
Paramedic Chris Porsz spent hours walking around the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the late 1970s and 80s, taking candid shots - without his subjects knowing and without recording their names or phone numbers.
Three decades later, Chris, known as the "parame